Webinar: forward planning

I'm a bit behind with blog posts, but getting caught up again now. Back in June I joined a forward planning webinar put on by The National Archives.

This lasted about an hour, and was a good way of finding out more about forward planning for archives, particularly as I could "attend" it from the comfort of my own office without incurring any travel costs or having to take time away from work.

We started off by testing out the webinar voting buttons by comparing how much progress participants so far had made with forward planning. Some of the reasons we might not be looking into it at the moment were: no time, no budget, things change too fast, organisation is too small BUT the emphasis was really on using our resources wisely, which means forward planning is essential. In times of uncertainty a forward plan is a useful advocacy tool to show the capabilities of your service and that your resources are used well, as well as how you are contributing to wider corporate priorities.

The essential (but flexible) ingredients of a forward plan are:

1. Mission
2. Review and evaluation of previous plan(s)
3. Analysis of internal and external environment in which service exists
4. Stakeholder consultation and analysis of views
5. Strategic aims
6. Specific objectives beneath each strategic aim
7. Action plan(s)
8. Resource plan(s)
9. Date plan(s) will be reviewed

As far as timescales go, it is good practice to plan in detail for the next year

Guidelines for writing the plan:

• Keep it simple
• Focus on highlights
• Include things that haven't happened (and why)
• If you have no previous plan, review the previous couple of years.

Analysis

Use SWOT or PESTLE analysis to determine the factors affecting your service.

Aims, objectives, actions and resources

What people and budget are needed to meet the archive's objectives and deliver the plan?

Who will write the plan?

• Don't write it alone - another pair of eyes is always useful!
• Have someone in a co-ordinating role to oversee the content
• Include a range of perspectives from within the organisation
• Compare notes with colleagues in other services.

Once you have a plan:

Use it-

• to plan work loads
• identify grants
• monitor progress
• to know how well you're doing
• to make the case for new resources

Renew it-

• don't let the plan die
• revisit each year's aims and objectives
• make sure your plan moves with time

Consulting with users and volunteers?

• Don't ask too many questions - keep it targetted.
• Ask quite specific questions, not "what could we do better".

Forward planning resources

Forward planning resources on TNA.
Collections Trust

I found the webinar very reassuring, as it helped me get a handle on what I need to do to create a forward plan. It was also good to be told that it doesn't have to be 110% perfect in order to be put in for the Archives Accreditation standard!

Visit: Special Collections at Royal Holloway

At the beginning of September I spent an afternoon on a visit organised by ALISS to Special Collections and Archives at Royal Holloway.

Founders Building at Royal Holloway

I know the university well, not only did I do my undergraduate degree there, but I also worked as a part-time library assistant in the three campus libraries whilst I was studying. But the Archives were quite hidden away whilst I was a student, and, despite working in the same building, I'd never ventured up the tower to the Archives reading room.

As we discovered during our visit, the Archivist, Annabel, explained that things are very different now, with Special Collections and Archives playing a role in teaching various groups of students, as well as featuring in students' research.

Archives & Special Collections reading room

Annabel talked us through the history of the college and the part it played in women's education. She showed how items from their collections relate to this. There is a fun feature on the BBC website showing Royal Holloway students' room in the 1890s and now. Annabel showed us various items from the archives, including the foundation deed, some photograph albums and the student register showing Emily Wilding.

We then discussed ways of publicising collections. Annabel does an item of the month on the college website (it isn't always her, the Curator writes some of them too) and tweets about them using the library's Twitter account (@RHUL_Library). Heritage Open Days are a good way of getting the local community in and raise awareness of what the archives holds, and leaflets are sent out to local heritage institutions, such as Egham Museum and Surrey History Centre. The annual garden party is a way of making connections with alumni. Archives Hub has also been crucial for getting collections known about online.

I really enjoyed my visit to Royal  Holloway. As usual with these visits, conversations were sparked off with other attendees sharing experiences and we had some good discussions about storage issues. Royal Holloway has big plans for a new library, which will feature purpose-built special collections storage area, exhibition space and reading room. I hope there will be opportunities for another visit once that's built.

Archives for All?

Last week I went to a day's workshop with the Education and Outreach department of the National Archives.

I found it a really useful day, with plenty of networking opportunities with other attendees (especially over a free lunch!), and a range of speakers.

First of all, Krishna Kaur (TNA Equality & Diversity Co-ordinator) talked us through Equality and Diversity at the National Archives, and we discussed the question how does your organisation promote Equality and Diversity across policy and practice?  in groups. I found this really interesting, as I've done Equality and Diversity training in both my current job and my previous one, but wanted to know how to take it to the next step, as it came up whilst I was putting together a funding bid. Not only is it important to remove physical barriers to people using your service, but how do you actively promote it so that a broader range of people use it? We talked about the protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion & belief, sex, sexual orientation) and how to actively promote equality and diversity through all kinds of areas such as: providing alternative formats for information (exhibition captions, for instance), positive action at interview (such as the Positive About Disabled People symbol that some organisations use in recruitment), and what events are recognised and celebrated through work at the archives/special collections. We also discussed barriers: time, money, resources, perceptions, listed buildings, conservation requirements.

Then the Outreach Manager, Sara Griffiths, talked to us about the new directions their outreach is going in, to inspire creativity as well as research. Their Caribbean Through a Lens project had made the most of social media, and encouraged participation by inviting comments and contributions, as well as working with community groups.

After lunch we heard about educational resources on the web from the Education Web Manager, Clare Horrie, and a colleague. This focussed on the lesson plans and more that TNA has available on its website, mainly about history and centred on their collections. It looks amazing, although I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount they had available (and how much work it must have taken to get it there). However, the ideas are scaleable. This is their document of the month feature, which is quite relevant to one of the collections I work with... They are also making a lot of use of Pinterest, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, which is good to hear.

Sarah Hutton, the Onsite Education Manager, with Lizzie Skeaping, the Education Officer, then gave us a taster of various educational activities they offer, including a table full of documents to have a look at, and a Magna Carta lesson where we all got to play with iPads. Did people take Magna Carta seriously? is taught by TNA but the children are in their own classroom back in school. It was fun having a go at the activities, and it also helped to see the range of things on offer, some of which I can imagine using. TNA is moving to a WordPress platform for their online lessons, which is free, so something that could be used in many places.

Finally, Fleur Soper and Kate Wheeler (Collections Knowledge Managers) talked to us about the Archiving the Arts programme (which I've already participated in at work by submitting details of some of our collections), and related areas to support the arts. This included a discussion touching on a range of issues, including funding. It is looking like the introduction of the Archives Accreditation standard means that most, if not all, future funders will expect the recipients of their funding to be accredited.

I really enjoyed my day at TNA. I had several useful discussion over lunch, and also learnt a lot from the speakers and activities. It was an interesting day, that had been thoughtfully arranged to include plenty of networking opportunities and hands on activities. My thanks to TNA for organising it.

Archives Hub contributors' workshop

The same week as the digitisation workshop at the Wellcome, I was also able to go on a contributors' workshop organised by Archives Hub, and held at Tate Britain.

I found the day really useful. We covered everything from an introduction to archival cataloguing using the Hub to future developments. Although I've been using the Hub at work for cataloguing our collections (you'll find them listed here) for most of this year, I'd picked up most of it as I went along, so it was great to have an overview, and also the chance to ask questions about areas I hadn't been sure about before.

Tips I picked up included:

• Making descriptions work effectively online (bearing in mind the person reading them could be anywhere in the world), as well as within the context of your institution.
• Creating multi-level descriptions (which is going to be SO useful). 
• Adding digital content.
• Using Hub descriptions to contribute to subject-based portals. 

The top tips for cataloguing are very useful, and I was also really excited about a future development of micro-sites, which would allow us to have our own local interface to host our own descriptions. 

I also enjoyed the networking opportunities, the chance to chat about the issues with people in a similar boat over coffee and lunch, and also to meet Bethan Ruddock and Jane Ronson for the first time. I liked the way the day was structured, which gave plenty of time to ask questions and have a go for ourselves. The day gave me plenty of ideas for future developments.

Thank you to Archives Hub, and particularly Bethan and Jane, for such a great and helpful day.

Digitisation workshop

I spent a morning last week at a digitisation workshop hosted by the Wellcome Trust, as part of their Wellcome Digital work. It was in the rather smart new building on Euston Road...

... and consisted of three presentations by Christy Henshaw, Dave Thompson and Matthew Brack. Christy's presentation is also available online, as is Dave's [opens a pdf], and Matthew's, followed by a trip upstairs to see the digitisation studios and equipment.

The Wellcome has just finished the first phase of 2 x 3 year phases of a digitisation programme. This has been a lot of work on a project named Codebreakers, about the history of genetics. Most of the work has been carried out on site, some using contractors and with up to eight full and part-time staff supporting the project, alongside three full-time photographers, using a variety of different camera and scanner set ups.

The presentations took us through the process of the digitisation project, image processing, metadata (including copyright and access levels, as well as granular access and creating a structure to help navigate within an item).

They discussed the software used: SDB (Safety Deposit Box, which acts as a gateway to securely stored content, and which automatically creates administrative metadata about the images as they are ingested into the repository), Player (a custom-built way of displaying digitised content, due to be released as open source by the end of 2013), Goobi (open source software for managing workflows in digitisation projects)

And metadata: administrative metadata (created automatically by SDB, above), descriptive metadata (ISAD(g) for archives, MARC for bibliographic, converted to XML, which then becomes MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema) once it's in the METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard) file. Still with me? There are lots of helpful explanations in Dave's presentation, above...

And formats:
JPEG2000, because it can be compressed as there simply wasn't enough room to store everything as a TIFF. JPEGs are created on the fly, as they are needed. They also use PDF, MPEG2 and MP3.

The particularly useful points I came away with were:

• Metadata metadata metadata. There's no point digitising unless you've already catalogued it. Without metadata digital objects might as well not exist, as you can't search for them. 50% of Wellcome digitisation project time is spent on cataloguing and metadata. Digitisation is an end to end process bringing together objects and metadata, it isn't just about putting books under cameras.
• Plan! Have a Data Management Plan. What will happen if it all goes wrong? (There was a great egg/custard analogy at this point).
• Include QA - how do you know that everything has been done to the right standard otherwise?
• Document your processes and decisions so that other people know what you've done, and you also know when you come back to it for a future project.
• Share what you've learnt so that others can learn from your mistakes.
• The actual physical imaging is a very tiny and final part of the programme.
• Bear conservation in mind - most damage to items happens through handling, and digitisation tends to cause different handling stresses to normal  use. Many items will need conservation work before they can be digitised, so factor it into the workflow.
• Copyright - do a rights risk assessment.

We were allowed to take photos in the Wellcome's studios. This is a copy stand set up  for digitising books - the glass plate raises and lowers once the book is underneath. It is from ICAM.

This is a similar copy stand, but used for digitising flat objects, such as archives.

This is a copy stand suitable for use with books that can't be opened sufficiently for the other one to be used. It allows the book to be supported at different angles so that images can be taken.

I had a fantastic morning and learnt a lot. It was also good to have a chance to chat with the other attendees about their digitisation plans (whilst enjoying some rather tasty cookies). My thanks to Christy, Matthew and Dave (and the people upstairs in the studios) for such an informative morning.

Dave's presentation linked to above includes suggested further reading. Christy has also got another presentation online, on digitisation workflows.

Special Collections feedback

I've been looking into getting feedback from users of Special Collections, so last week I asked on lis-rarebooks and Twitter about what feedback other special collections libraries ask for and how they use it. I received many responses, as well as many requests to share what I had found, so I thought I'd blog about what I found out.

As I'm sure I've already said on this blog, librarians are the most incredibly lovely helpful people out there. I received a lot of attachments with examples of feedback forms, so the list below summarises questions asked.

Some collected category of user (e.g. undergraduate, postgraduate, academic), usually combined with whether they were from that institution or a different one.

Some had age range and gender tick boxes.

Tick boxes about enjoyment/whether staff were friendly and helpful/whether the visit was informative, rated between 1 and 5 (this was from an organisation that did tours of the library area), plus space for comments on what was particularly enjoyed and whether any improvements could be recommended.

Many institutions had very simple suggestion slips or cards (about postcard size) which any comments could be written on, with a postbox provided. Sometimes these were handed to users, sometimes they were left out on reading room tables to be picked up.

Exhibitions often had a comments book at the end for visitors to leave feedback.

Other ideas

In conjunction with Love Your Libraries Day (14th Feb) one institution (not solely Special Collections) asked for freetext feedback on heart shaped post-it notes from students, who received mini packs of Love Hearts in return.

Timing

Some institutions gave a survey form to every visitor. Others either did an annual survey or tied in feedback with a national survey and only surveyed visitors during a certain time period.

The PSQG (Public Services Quality Group for archives and local studies) survey was one of these, with past survey results available.

Common questions

What is your area of research?

How did you find these items were in Special Collections or in xx institution?

Which collection did you use (often combined with tick boxes if there weren’t many collections to choose from)?

What would you like to see displayed (from an institution running quarterly exhibitions to highlight their materials)?

Did you expect to be permitted to see items in xx library?

Could you have seen the items anywhere else?

Would you have been able to use a digitized copy of the items for your research? Would you have preferred this?

How did you find Special Collections supported your research?

Tell us about what you enjoyed (this was aimed at tour visitors)?

Do you intend to tell others about our collections as a result of your visit?

Have you used collections from other institutions to support your research? If so, please give details.

Do you have any suggestions or comments to help improve the xx Special Collections?

Online feedback

Several respondents reported that a lot more feedback was received from online exhibitions and/or blogs, where it is easy to leave comments, “like” a post or tweet a link.

Twitter and Facebook were both often used as a means of getting feedback.

Virtual Users Groups were mentioned by a couple of respondents as a way of getting feedback and asking for comments.

Website hits were also counted, and it is usually possible to find out which country most hits are from, plus referring sites and commonly used search terms.

Some websites also had a feedback link, although this tended to be used for issues about the website.

How feedback is used

For many institutions collecting feedback seemed to be a relatively new phenomenon and/or not enough responses had been received yet for anything to be implemented. Several institutions mentioned not having had enough time yet to analyse results!

There were various comments about how it was hoped to use the information:

• Track usage of collections
• Useful evidence for the university’s research output
• Improve user experience
• Where contact details are left to respond directly to any specific questions from users
• Online feedback was used to tailor blog posts and exhibitions (for example, by seeing which search terms were used most often, and what was popular).

More ideas

The Special Collections handbook (2011) has a section on feedback and complaints, as well as social media and feedback, and researching user needs.

The Customer Service Excellence Standard was mentioned as a practical tool with self-assessment of customer service.

I like to illustrate my posts, but I couldn't think of a way to illustrate "feedback", until I remembered my old cat, Sooty, was excellent at providing extremely vocal feedback about anything and everything. And, yes, he did only have three legs.

Visit: Bromley House Library, cataloguing projects, volunteers and fundraising

Last week I went on an Historic Libraries Forum workshop covering retrospective cataloguing projects, working with volunteers and fundraising. I found it really useful, with lots of great networking opportunities, as well as a chance to see a lovely library and get some new ideas to try. The photos on this post were taken by me, with permission from Bromley House, but I didn't use flash so they aren't the best photos I've ever taken!

The visit was hosted by Bromley House Library, a subscription library in the centre of Nottingham, which has existed for nearly 200 years and been in its current building since 1821. The library is home to about 40,000 books, (about 200 of which could be described as "rare" and about 100 manuscripts), and the staff have spent the last couple of years getting them catalogued using the Heritage LMS from ISOxford; the OPAC will be available shortly online. The visit was centred around this process, but commenced with a tour of the building and its garden, which really helped to set the context for the project.

Children's book section - there are some lovely classics I remember from my childhood here!

The building is tall, with rooms leading off each other, and the in-house classification system had become split between rooms making it hard for people to find items using the card catalogue. The collections have been gathered together over the years, and although sections such as modern fiction are weeded, anything published pre-1970 isn't. Whilst environmental control is difficult in a building like this, an enthusiastic conservation group meets each week, trained by a conservator to take basic book conservation measures, such as cleaning, making boxes and tying tape. Other issues are the beautiful gallery room, with books shelved to quite a high level (although it now takes 2-3 people together to get books from the highest shelves) and a vertiginous spiral staircase on which only one person at a time is allowed!

 Background and staff
 A series of talks gave the background to the cataloguing project, which was funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Before the application, research had been done into how other libraries had coped with using volunteers to catalogue books, and it was clear that a system of training and supervision would need to be set up. This entailed recruiting a part-time project leader, plus several part-time professional cataloguers, who would then each oversee a team of volunteers, covering the whole week between them. Volunteers were mostly drawn from the library's own members, and to ensure consistency, each were asked to commit to at least one half day session each week. Adverts were placed for the professional staff, and copies of the job descriptions for these and the project leader were available for us to see.

Cataloguing process
The new professional staff put together a cataloguing procedure for their newly acquired LMS, together with the compact agreed with volunteers and handlining guidelines for the books. The cataloguing procedure was revised and updated as they went along and learnt from their experiences, particularly as the volunteers had varying levels of IT ability. Help sheets were developed for difficult groups of items. Although Heritage doesn't use MARC, records could be downloaded from the British Library and the cataloguing procedure used AACR2 and DCRM(B) (where appropriate). They aimed for a greater level of detail than in most of the downloaded records. Quality control was achieved by sampling and checking work, creating lists of commons errors to watch out for and conducting a stock check near the end using the accessions register to make sure nothing had been missed.

Rare books
Work on this area was done by two people who already had experience in cataloguing rare books. These books again were catalogued to a much higher level of detail, using DCRM(B) and with help from the CILIP RBSCG guidelines. Particular attention was paid to recording details of bindings, provenance and marginalia, in a standard form in the Notes field in Heritage. A useful feature of Heritage was the ability to add local notes (not visible in the OPAC) to record condition, meaning that reports can now be run to pick out items for conservation work. Where appropriate, items were submitted to ESTC, contributing to the international world of scholarship.

Fundraising
Money for the project had come from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and a variety of small grants from charitable trusts. Tips shared about fundraising were:

• Consider carefully the goals of each trust you are applying to and make sure your aims are tailored very specifically to their terms.
• Generally you won't get funding for things that should be a normal part of the library operation, e.g. the expense of acquiring a new LMS.
• Local trusts are particularly worth looking out for, although individual grants may be small.
• Be aware of what the rest of your institution is doing, you don't want to be obstructing their fundraising efforts, or vice versa!
• Be aware of reporting and evaluation requirements throughout the project, and try to involve the funders in your work, e.g. by inviting them to volunteers' parties.
• Be aware of outreach potential, often a key part of making a fundraising application. Trusts will often want to see outreach beyond your usual customer base, and maybe a culture change in the organisation so that this is sustained in the long term.

Photocopies are paid for by putting money in the frog

 Lessons learned
I found it really useful to hear what might have been done differently with the benefit of hindsight, as well as what had gone well.

• One good point was that the volunteers were in for 10 sessions a week, which left no time for system maintenance or downtime. 
• There were also useful tips on communication between part-time staff, especially where they don't overlap, and in motivation (apparently sweets are the key, as well as parties!).
• It was clear that both the staff and volunteers had really taken ownership of the project and had gained a lot from it, both in terms of skills acquired (such as IT) and by building networks and adding value to the institution.
• I also found it very useful to see the documentation, ranging from job descriptions to cataloguing manuals.

And finally, a picture of the garden behind the library, a little oasis in the centre of Nottingham, maintained by volunteers and much enjoyed by members.

Thank you to Bromley House for a really interesting day.